Another Chapter Closes

Basketball is over!

 In 2013, a group of missionary and Christian schools in Asia formed a new conference: ASCS Asia Christian Schools Conference. The schools include Dalat International School, Maylasia,  Faith Academy, Philippines, Grace International, Thailand, International Christian School of Hong Kong, St. Paul Christian School, Guam, Yongsan International School Seoul, Korea, and Morrison. 

An advantage of being a varsity player in soccer, volleyball, or basketball is the opportunity to participate in an end of the season tournament hosted by one of these schools. Earlier this year, Morrison hosted the girl's volleyball tournament. 

Early Tuesday morning  both the varsity teams boarded a bus headed for the airport- the boys' team to Hong Kong, while the girls' final destination was Maylasia. 

After a long day of travel, they safely arrived to the beautiful, but hot campus of Dalat. The campus has a beautiful location.

 After all the teams arrived, they spent an evening meeting each other, roasting marshmallows, and enjoying a fireworks display.

These athletes are also given the opportunity to serve in the host country. Competition is set aside, while the teams work together to bring joy and the love of Jesus to others less fortunate. When Morrison is the host, the teams partner with Taiwan Sunshine to host a I Am a Hero Game (similar to Special Olympics in the US). What an amazing testimony to the community around each of these Christian schools!

Abbi's team taking off their game faces to spend some time loving on the children of Maylasia.

Carl and I would have loved to go along and been part of this experience, but time and finances would not allow such a luxury.  Via the miracle of technology, we were able to see most of the games. My students also enjoyed a few of the games with the use of an apple tv projector! Not only did Dalat do a great job live streaming the games, they actually had an announcer calling play by play! Plus they had a designated photographer to take pictures for all the parents scattered around Asia missing these photo opportunities.

As I watched from my classroom, I could hear people cheering for Morrison which was very perplexing considering only one fan traveled with the team to the tournament. Evidently, the younger Dalat students desired to see Morrison do well in their games.

Their cheering was quite exuberant. I suspect they were cheering for the Mustangs in hope to repeat last year's title game, but with Dalat coming out the winner this time. 

Sadly, that was not to be. Even from across the cyber world, it was evident our team was not themselves. Despite their struggles, they won the first three games to enter the bracket as the number one seed. 

Unfortunately, they never made it to the final game. Dalat did, and while the championship looked to be theirs, it slipped into the hands of the team they had beaten previously by 23 points. 

Here a some pictures of my favorite Mustang in action....

While losing is difficult, its an important of being an athlete. Adversity strengthens and develops character. Even so, it still hurts!

I am so thankful Abbi was able to be a part of this team.

Thank you to my friend Grace who took some of these pictures and a big round of thankfulness to the  Dalat photographer who captured the other moments. 

Thanks for sharing!